The BBC circulated a story recently that set the world’s chocoholics on their beam ends when it said loud and clear that ‘experts’ had decided that ‘people who regularly eat chocolate are more depressive.’

Aaaah, but is it a cause or a cure?
How many harassed, time poor individuals in our modern world, fly to the fridge for a comforting gnaw on a slab of choccy when the pressures of life get too, too much? Surely the emotional upheavals and mental depressions come first and are actually remedied by everyone’s favourite mood food?

Not so, claims the BBC article. It says that research in Archives of Internal Medicine ‘shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again’. (Could be because who can stop at one? Bet they never thought of that!)

However, with typical Brit sang froid, the article then goes on to say: ‘Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, and the US team say this may be true …although scientific proof for this is lacking.’

Well, I mean to say … it hardly takes a brain scientist to work out why so many billions of people all around this topsy, turvy, troubled old world get the chocky munchies whenever the going gets rough or tough or out of control. It’s not known as mood food for nothing!

But apparently, the researchers in this case, said that they ‘cannot rule out that chocolate may be a cause rather than the cure for being depressed.’

It appears that, in this study that included nearly 1,000 adults, ‘the more chocolate the men and women consumed the lower their mood.’

Using a recognized scale, it was established that those who ate the most – ie more than six regular 28g size bars a month - scored the highest on depression. None of these nibblers was on antidepressants or had been diagnosed as clinically depressed by a doctor.

The BBC article continued:
‘Dr Natalie Rose and her colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, say there are many possible explanations for their findings, and that these need to be explored. It may simply be that people who are depressed crave chocolate as a "self-treatment" to lift mood, or depression may drive the craving without any beneficial effect. Now, this is getting heavy…

‘Alternatively, analogous with alcohol, there could be short-term benefits of chocolate to mood with longer-term untoward effects,’ they told the journal. ‘Chocolate could even be a direct cause of depression,’ the researchers added.

With ‘scientific proof for this lacking’, we prefer to side with Bridget O'Connell, of the mental health charity Mind who said: ‘The way we feel and what we eat can be closely related, and many people will be familiar with craving particular foods or comfort eating when they are stressed, under pressure or depressed. However, as this study shows, more research is needed to determine exactly what the relationship between chocolate and our mood is.’

Who funds these endless inconclusive so-called scientific studies?
Like, how hard is it. We live in a world of multiple stress inducers. When a bunch of them bite you, you counteract with a superbly self indulgent small snack of smooth, velvety, totally comforting chocolate. And the problem subsides beneath the pleasure.

That’s why we love chocolate: it’s the adult version of Mummy’s kiss it better’
Where’s the drama in that?